I Am Not Your Enemy
by Sixx Killer
Summary: (After Avengers) A dark monster reborn wishes to control it all. Frost Giants mutated want they're revenge. Deep in the cells of SHIELD is a girl with a secret. Loki's help is needed. Secrets collide. Romance brews. Horrors unveiled. Who is the enemy? Who can you trust? What to do when the world seems to fall on you. Will the Avengers survive this time? Will the world?
1. Chapter 1

_Long ago, all nine realms were in fact one universe: a glorious, peaceful and harmonious world which spun together like the mechanics of a clock. At the very heart of this universe were ancient beings known as Essentia. They controlled the universe, forever keeping it in balance. This all changed when the youngest Essentia known as Opes became caught in the spell of the darkness. He saw the power of his people, and he wanted it all for himself. His thoughts became filled with a darkness that his people had never seen before. He soon began to infect the others, forcing them to become his followers. The penalty for resisting was slaughter._

_He took control of the universe, and everything slipped under a deathly black veil. Everyone suffered as evil creatures such as night elves spawned from the black. Like bacteria, these creatures spread across the worlds leaving nothing but devastation in their wake. This tragedy made Opes stronger. He planned on building an army strong enough to break down the barriers of reality itself!_

_This lasted for hundreds of years until finally, Opes approached his goals. The days were counting down until his army would be all powerful and unstoppable. During these last hopeless days, nine magicians (that would later come to be known as the Lucis Via) arose to stop Opes forever. They ripped out his heart in the dead of night, and with it, the source of his power. _

_The darkness was too strong. They could not destroy it, but they could contain it. The Lucis Via ripped the heart into nine pieces, sealing themselves within each piece to stop the magic from escaping. The pieces later came to be known as the Nine Stones of Opes._

_The universe became unbalanced when the magic of the nine stones collided with the physics holding the fabric of reality together. The world began to crumble. With no central power to restore balance, the universe saved itself by ripping into nine realms and hiding a stone within each._

_It is said if one were to reunite all nine pieces of the stone, the bearer would be bestowed with the power of the Essentia, and hold control over the universe itself…_

Far away in a pocket of darkness found at the very edge of reality, two forces met.

"I have collected seven in total, I only need two more."

"Asgard's and Earth's, though according to you, Asgard's stone has fallen to Earth."

"Exactly. Why is it you ask me here then?"

"We have spent years hiding in the darkness. The few survivors after our devastating attack have mutated here. We have changed to become stronger than ever before, no longer relying on the cold. All these years we have been lying in secret, waiting for the opportune moment for our revenge, and we see that now is the time to destroy Asgard."

"And how does this involve me?"

"Agard's strongest hero, Thor, has a bond with Earth. You force him to Earth by bringing destruction, and Asgard will be left defenceless."

"You then wish to destroy Asgard when he has gone, I see. Well, I shall do as you ask. In return, when I have control of this universe, your army of Frost Giants must answer to me and me alone. You shall help me break down reality, even if it cost your lives."

"Very well, Opes. Allow us to keep the traitor Loki, and you have a deal."

"Excellent." A small smile appeared on the dark one's face. While the Frost Giants had become stronger, they had become more gullible. He did not need to rely on them at all. He just wanted some fun.

At the same time on Earth, a young girl with a dark secret sat in her cell. Looking up through barred windows at the moon above, she felt a stir in the atmosphere.

She shivered.


	2. Chapter 2

_"And the tower points rose up like golden blades, honouring the jewel studded sky"_

Pompeii sat quietly in her cell, remembering the words her mother spoke so softly, they echoed in her head as if bouncing of the walls around her. She used to dream of going to those places, together with her mother and father. She dreamed of a different life. She dreamed of a new world, one where she was wanted. One where people would admire her talents and be proud of what she'd gone through. A place where she belonged.

That fantasy had long since turned to dust, as the cold stone wall behind her back reminded her where she was. This is where she belonged, SHEILDs high functioning prison, constantly reminded day in and day out that she was a criminal. Evil ran through her veins, chaos and mischief was a part of her DNA, and she had no place in this world. For ten years she'd seen the same old grey walls and concrete floor. The same barred window letting in a droplet of sunlight on the warmest summer days. The same electrical bars barricading her inside the cell, through which she would see people walk in and out of these jails.

"Prisoner 516" An emotionless voice called. Looking up, Pompeii met the eyes of the albino Agent Branson. A man she despised more than anything in this world.

"Still giving me a number, how cruel," she said sarcastically, as she watched the Agent with sharp emerald eyes. If she could, she would murder that man. She would watch him suffer and struggle in pain.

"Follow me. You're needed," he growled unpleasantly as he opened the thumb lock bars, allowing Pompeii out. She couldn't help but notice the armed guard either side of him, a silly thing since she was smarter than to try something in the world's highest security prison. Lazily she got up and followed him down the black and grey corridors, all the way controlling the rage the very sight of this man caused her. Until finally, he led her to a small grey interviewing room with a one way window and bland white walls. The grey metal table in the centre certainly didn't add any life to the room either. They sat either end of the desk, but it was still too close for Pompeii. She wanted the man to be gone from this planet completely, in fact from this universe. She hated him. A man whom had killed her mother. A man who at the age of seven placed her in this prison. A man who has made every waking hour of her life a misery. Oh how she wanted that man to burn!

"You wanted me?" she asked calmly.

"As you may or may not know, the city of New York was attacked yesterday by a mysterious man, leaving nothing but devastation in his wake. While we do not know anything about this guy, we do know he was searching for a very powerful stone. One that SHEILD's base is in fact built around." Pompeii let out a sigh, placing her feet on top of the table and allowing her raven hair to tumble down the back of the chair.

"What does this have to do with me?"

"Director Fury wanted you to help alongside the Avengers. He needs someone who understands the criminal psyche, someone a part of the prison training program and can fight. He needs someone who is unknown by the public and can work under the radar."

"You want someone who won't be missed by a single person if killed," she corrected bluntly. "But why would I help you? Why would I help SHEILD, the assholes I hate more than anything. I would rather sit back and watch you all get destroyed and laugh as you burn. So give me one goddamn reason why I would help you," she snarled through gritted teeth, head now raised to glare at the man above her legs. Pompeii jumped back in self defence when the agent trained his gun on her.

"Because if you don't agree, then I will shoot you here and now. Not a single fucker will know you've gone. If you do agree then I shall put your freedom up for consideration, understand?"

Pompeii considered the offer for a moment, before smiling sickly. "Well, it seems you have 'convinced' me. When do we start?"

Tony Stark sighed as he and the rest of the Avengers, bar the spandex wearing demigod whom they had no way of contacting, stood round in the meeting room.

"But if he was searching for something, why destroy the city? I mean he left it in absolute ruin in some places!" Steve questioned.

"Maybe to scare us off? Or cause chaos while he looked, so it'd be easier for him to get a hold of it?" Natasha suggested.

"Close but not quite right." All of a sudden Director Nick Fury barged through the door, with him the remote the large computer screen above them all in the centre of the room.

"We believe he knew where the item was all along," he explained. "The disaster to New York was more like intimidation, or a death threat."

"So you know what he's looking for then?" Tony asked, unsurprised by this new revelation; SHEILD had a history of keeping secrets.

"Yes." Fury pointed at the image of a large blue-tinted stone that appeared to be emitting a strange sort of radiation on the screen. "This stone was found years before SHEILD was officially formed. A group of scientists came across it when following bizarre wavelengths. A stone of an unknown element that is emitting a hell of a lot of power. It became clear though that it was beyond their resources to harness it, or control it for that matter. In fact, the stone appeared so dangerous they tried to destroy it, only to discover it's impossible." The screen then flicked again, this time to a map of SHEILD base. In the very centre of the archives, buried deep, glowed a small dot. "In the end, they buried the stone underground, swearing to keep it away from anyone and anything that could possibly use it. Later, SHEILD was built around it."

Tony sighed, once again annoyed at the secrets SHEILD had been keeping. If he had known, he probably could of looked into how to stabilise the energy or help protect it...something. As always SHEILD has its head up its ass and humanity was in danger.

"It's one of the nine stones of Opes," a stranger's voice commented from the doorway.

The group turned around and saw a girl leant up against the door frame.

"Who's this?" Stark pointed at the girl with a look of curiosity and slight disgust. He hated being interrupted, especially during something as important as saving the world. She had an arrogant air about her, one that he didn't like. In fact, everything about her made her stand out in this building. A proper leather uniform replaced with an old white tank top and army trousers, smart hair swapped for black, braided, beaded, and backcombed ponytail.

"Name's Pompeii," she offered.

Stark noted the rough almost sexual edge to the girls voice which matched so perfectly with her appearance. She was alluring, poisonous, and yet shielded. Everything from the way she crossed her arms to how her full red lips showed neither a frown nor a smile screamed mystery and danger.

"She's been sent here from SHEILD prison, in order to help us out," Fury explained.

SHEILD prison? "That's for the world's most violent and dangerous criminals. And you're letting her help us?" Had Fury gone mad? Tony struggled to see how this could be a good idea. Turning, he noticed how the emotionless face had turned to that of bitterness or anger. Sorry honey, but if the shoe fits…

She did look rather young to be in a prison such as that. What was she, seventeen? Maybe she could pass for eighteen if he squinted. Hell, she might be younger than that. Either way, he struggled to believe she had caused such damage in her life.

"The leader of the prison department has assured me she won't try anything."

"And if she does?"

"Then you have full permission to kill me." Her voice was dead pan, as if the thought didn't even faze her, suprising even Tony. How could she be so flippant about her own life? He has come close to death many times, but never has he been so reckless with his life. Did she not see the value of her life? Or has she done something that has made her life unimportant to her? He truly couldn't fathom it.

"Look, we don't have time to question Fury's decision," Steve stated.

"He's right on this one," Banner agreed.

"Now, what were you saying about these stones?"

"It was a story my mother told me years ago." She walked into the room and slung herself onto one of the many empty chairs. "Basically, within each of the Nine Realms there's a stone made from the black heart of Opes. Find all pieces of the heart and you'll have control over the universe."

"Opes? Where have I heard that name?" Steve muttered.

"Hey didn't that guy claim to be Opes? The one who was searching for the stone?" Clint asked.

Without hesitation, Fury flipped the screen to the recording sent by the New York terrorist 'Opes'. Images of black ghost-like figures destroying the city came blazing on, making Tony sick to his stomach as people ran, screamed and died. That's when the head of a monstrous creature appeared. It was the head of a blue shaved bull, but the features were that of a human face with orange hollow eyes. His mouth did not exist, not in human terms at least. In its place, three gold plates surrounded a blue light.

"I am Opes, and I have to claim the stone which was once mine. Say goodbye to your world, and make peace with your gods, for we will show you no mercy." With that the screen fuzzed and the image disappeared.

"Well while I hate to base my ideas of fantasy, that story seems to be the closest thing we have to the truth of the mystery," Natasha admitted.

Tony could only silently agree, though he hated the idea of a story someone's mother made up being the basis of their next move.

"Who's Opes then? Was that ever mentioned?" Clint asked.

"In the tale, Opes was an incredibly powerful and god-like being."

"How powerful?" Tony couldn't believe he was indulging this delusion.

"Let's put it this way, if humans consider Asgardians to be gods, Asgardians would consider Opes a god."

Shit…

"Wait how do you know abou-"

"Sir we have an emergency!" Agent Hughes almost shouted from the doorway.

"We're under attack! He's after the stone!"

"Avengers suit up!"

Suddenly everyone split. Not sure what to do with herself, Pompeii followed Fury and Natasha. Running down the corridor, they went to a large weapons cupboard. Fury brought out Natasha's weaponry. He then turned and took out two rather large laser guns and handed them over to Pompeii.

When she tried to take them, he hung onto the ends.

"If you betray us..." he warned.

"I know, I know. You will hunt me down and kill me. I am well aware what's on the line, Director."

"Very well then. Remember, do well and you'll have your freedom." Handing her the guns, Nick grabbed his own equipment and ran.

Pompeii stayed still for a moment, looking at her reflection in the glass at the back of closet. She allowed her eyes to turn red just for a moment, before looking down and changing them back to green. "My freedom will be put up for consideration. It shall never be granted. She turned around, not wanting to see herself anymore, and followed the growing sounds of gunfire down the corridor.


	3. Chapter 3

Pompeii watched in horror as all across the main area of SHEILD were terrible creatures of hell. They wore black flowing capes and evaporated into the air like smoke. Occasionally the hood would fall back and reveal dark hollow eyes that were more like holes. Bare skeleton ribcages that appeared to have been smouldered together with gruesome, vein-covered, rotten bits of flesh could be clearly seen with a stone implanted where a heart should have been. The rest of the body was veiled by a thick blackness.

It was just then she saw a twinkle out the corner of her eye and quickly ducked left, narrowly avoiding the oncoming blade as she fell to the ground. Looking up she saw a sword inches away from her face. It looked as if moonlit vines had all twisted in on themselves to form the weapon, already stained crimson with the blood of a human. In fear, she kicked the creature back before gripping her gun and firing at his head. There was a clang as the head of a skeleton came rolling off the body and hit the floor. Pompeii's eyes widened in shock as the head, much like a magnet, simply floated off the floor and attached itself back onto the mound of flesh and bone.

"Shit!" The thing lunged for her left, right, left and left again, as she only just avoided each attack with quick swerves of her body. The sword came swinging towards her and in a desperate attempt to escape it, to escape she latched onto one of the vertical beams holding up the platform, swinging around it feet first. Upon coming back around behind the creature, she kicked the creature causing it to fall face first on the metal floor.

She didn't have long to rest however, as she turned just in time to see a silver blade come down, cutting her straight across her. She let out a small howl of pain when the creature fell on her and her back hit the floor" would sound better. The sword glistened above her, taunting her, like a sweet promise to escape her life. It came ramming down and she rolled left. It missed her chest as it grazed the edge of her arm. Her mother had always taught her to never give up, no matter what the world threw at her. Giving into the sweet thought would be like giving into a drug. Pompeii would be bringing her to shame.

Pompeii held one advantage over these shadows. While they were strong and virtually indestructible, she was fast, and that speed came and skill came as her only chance of winning. Before the creature could attack again, Pompeii threw her legs upwards and kicked the shadow up and back away from her. It crashed into the bars at the other end.

While Pompeii had the chance, she leapt to her feet and jumped down from the platform onto the desk below. It was worse down there with the Avengers littered across the room trying to stop these strange shadow monsters. Well, everyone but Banner, which was probably a good idea bearing in mind this was a very confined space with lots of innocent people. In the centre were Captain America and Natasha, trying to clear the eye of the storm. Meanwhile, herself, Iron Man, and Hawkeye were scattered among the edge doing the best they could to keep their own 'area' clear for at least two seconds.

Firing left, right and centre Pompeii was desperate to keep her desk territory Shadow free. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a group of monsters by the computers. _Wait, were they trying to get into the system? Not good! _Quickly she fired at the creatures, blowing them back from the data and accidentally destroying the technology. Well, she never did get along with machines. With her focus on the shadows manipulating the computers, she failed to notice one of her previous enemies until it was too late. Slicing the edge of her face, the Shadow caused Pompeii to almost fall of the edge of the desk. The warm blood now (take out "now") trickling down the side of her face, caused a mild burning sensation. She turned and was struck with fear upon noticing how close the creature had actually got. Grabbing her guns she sporadically fired at the monster, forcing it backwards and eventually off the desk.

That's when something very odd happened, Instead of coming back, the Shadow seemed to almost disintegrate into the atmosphere. It took a moment until it finally hit her, the stone! She had fired at its chest destroying the embedded stone. _That must be their soft point!_

"The stone!" she called over to the captain.

"What?" He looked at her confused, before throwing his shield at another oncoming enemy.

"The stone in their chest! Destroy that! It kills them!"

Steve looked at her as if deciding whether he could believe what she said.

"Trust me!" Pompeii begged.

The Captain nodded and punched the nearest monster directly where the stone lay, causing it to shatter like glass, taking the Shadow out with it.

"You hear that Stark? Aim for the stone!" He called, spreading the word to the others.

Now knowing their weakness Pompeii was finally able to clear out her area, shooting the Shadows down mercilessly.

With her section clear, she leaped into the middle to help out Captain America and Natasha. No sooner had she done that, they were they joined by Iron Man.

"Right now we know their weakness. Anyone have a plan?" Black Widow asked.

_A plan? Who makes plans in the middle of a battlefield_, Pompeii wondered.

"Cap?" Stark turned.

"Well, Hawkeye is already on the upper floors taking down any trying to scale the wall. Black Widow and I can handle the ones down here, but there are more outside. You and Pompeii caused the most damage, I suggest you handle them."

"Destruction?" Pompeii was slightly offended. How did she cause the most destruction? That's when she saw one of the hellish creature out the corner of her eye. Letting loose she blew them into oblivion.

"Oh." That's how. She heard Tony sigh behind her but choose to ignore it.

"Arrogant git," she muttered.

"Well you better hold on, Hell," he warned.

"Hell?"

"Yeah, cause I know that's what you're gonna cause me."

Before she could come up with a response, she felt her stomach drop to her ass as the ground disappeared from her feet.

"Woah!" Stark had lifted Pompeii tried to grab her breath and balance herself out.

She hoped that Iron Man had a good grip.

That's when she felt the outside air against her body. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes only to see herself and Stark were outside. Outside, the one place she had not ventured for years. Flying in the air, she soaked it up. The warm sun rays that cascaded down upon her. The fresh wind the flew past her face. For the first time in a very long time, she felt true freedom. Up in the air, not Agent Branson, not SHEILD, not even gravity could control her! And for a second, one glorious second, she pretended that there was not a battle below her, no monsters to kill. It was just she and Tony, soaring through the sky and it felt…

Incredible!

Sadly, it all crashed down as Tony let go. She fell through the air and her feet crashed onto the earth. Her freedom dissipated, and once again she was in the heat of battle fighting for a world who hated her. At least now she had one more incredible dream to cling onto, one more hope to help her struggle through life, even if it did involve a man who seemed to despise her more than anyone.

**Like to put in a note here to my wonderful Beta Reader 'blown-transistor' Who is absolutely amazing! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much! My story would be shit without you XD**


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